If you look at the condition book for the 145-day Finger Lakes meet that begins Saturday, it seems like business as usual. Purses are the same as a year ago, and while the meet is 10 days shorter, not much else seems to have changed.

Looks can be deceiving.

The annual Finger Lakes purse structure of about $15 million largely comes from revenue generated by the racino’s video lottery terminals. Those funds are going to shrink markedly this year since a full-blown Las Vegas-style casino, the Del Lago, opened 30 miles away in February.

While Finger Lakes owner Delaware North received a tax break from the state to make up for the gaming business it is expected to lose, the Finger Lakes horsemen were not compensated, putting live racing at the track in jeopardy.

David Brown, the president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association at Finger Lakes, has worked the past three years to strike a deal with the state, Delaware North, and Del Lago to reimburse the horsemen. An agreement was finally reached last month.

“The deal was not particularly favorable to us, but with the timing of when we wanted to open, we felt it was good enough to move forward,” Brown said.

There was a TV show back in the 60's sponsored by some grocery chain in NY that featured Finger Lakes. It was some kind of a contest. I remember watching it everyday. That's what got me really hooked on racing. There were prizes like winning groceries. And yeah, most races were 4 1/2 to 6 furlongs.

That's what happens if your father is stationed in radar installations on the Canadian border. You get hooked on horse racing.

ElPrado2 wrote:There was a TV show back in the 60's sponsored by some grocery chain in NY that featured Finger Lakes. It was some kind of a contest. I remember watching it everyday. That's what got me really hooked on racing. There were prizes like winning groceries. And yeah, most races were 4 1/2 to 6 furlongs.

Sounds like a localized version of the syndicated "Let's Go to the Races," in which you'd pick up game cards at participating supermarkets that had the numbers of the horses your "money" would be on in each of the half dozen or so races that were televised. The races themselves were usually from Florida, either Gulfstream or Hialeah, from several years previous. And almost all of the time, the horses on your game cards would find the most unlikely ways to lose.

Those 4 1/2-furlong races are only run the first few weeks of the FL season. Out here in simulcast land, I've always welcomed them as a sign that spring is here and Saratoga can't be far off. In the '70s, when I was in college at Syracuse, FL was known for something very different -- a meet-long series of distance races that would stretch beyond 3 and, eventually, 4 miles. I still recall two of the horses that won multiple events in that series: Eastern Warrior and Count Mafosta. I think a horse named Schumacher also took a few. The final furlongs of these races often made the sports highlights on the Syracuse TV news.

Skip-A-Way wrote:I remember Count Mafosa! Oh my goodness that was so long ago.

Tell me about it. I was in college then; tonight I'm wrapping up my 62nd birthday!

Just did a little research and found I misremembered Eastern Promise's (not Warrior) name. Also, I forgot about Amber Dare, who won THREE of those ultra-marathons, setting never-to-be-broken track records at 2 1/4, 2 5/8 and 4 1/16 miles. Victory Tour put an end to this foolishness on closing day in 1974, winning at 4 1/8 miles in 8:08 flat!